March Update

sitting in the kitchen listening to the rain
washing away my blues
I don’t worry when I’m happy again
living is its own good news
I comb my hair like a straight A student
step off the merry-go-round
sitting in the kitchen listening to the rain fall down
–Bruce Robison, Kitchen Blues

There’s a light rain falling on New Braunfels at the moment, and I don’t mind it one bit. Rain is always welcomed down here, since we’re never sure how much of it we’re going to get in a given year. Spring is right around the corner, so if a little chilly end-of-February rain earns us a few more bluebonnets I’ll take it.

Last Saturday I played The Royal Theater in Archer City– the very theater that served as both location and inspiration for Larry McMurtry’s breakthrough novel The Last Picture Show. Mr. McMurtry operates a wonderful bookstore within the confines of this sleepy little town, and I spent a few hours pouring over its seemingly limitless shelves. His collection used to fill four separate buildings in town, but a massive auction a few years ago whittled his stock down by a good 75%. I walked away with a tiny book of poetry– Traveller by Walter de la Mere (the title obviously piqued my interest) and a fairly insane collection of letters to critics of art aptly titled The Gentle Art Of Making Enemies by a man more famous for his art then his aggressive letter-writing, James McNeill Whistler (he of Whistler’s Mother fame). The title obviously piqued my interest with this one as well. You never know where you’re going to find a song– in a bookstore or in a book. In a sleepy town or in your living room. I’m always looking. The show in Archer City was one of those that fully recharge the soul, and I’m pleased to report that, as far as I know, I left town the following morning having made no enemies, gently or otherwise.